The search for the holy grail: Criminogenic needs matching, intervention dosage, and subsequent recidivism among serious juvenile offenders in residential placement

Purpose: The Risk-Need-Responsivity paradigm promotes matching of services to individualized criminogenic needs. This framework has become common lexicon, yet empirical evaluation of individual-level service matching, while including actual dosage received, is surprisingly sparse. We examine the efficacy of matching criminogenic needs to interventions within juvenile justice residential programs while accounting for the dosages of services received (contact hours and number of weeks). Methods: We use a sample of 1678 juvenile offenders (58% Black, 12% Hispanic, 14% female) released from residential placement. Logistic regression tests whether service matching and achieving dosage targets recommended by Lipsey's Standardized Program Evaluation Protocol (SPEP) predict greater reductions in risk from admission to discharge using a validated risk/need tool. Additionally, exact matching is used to create equivalent groups in examining whether service matching and achieving SPEP targets results in lower recidivism post release. Results: Service matching coupled with achieving SPEP service delivery targets results in greater risk reduction in five of ten domains examined, and significantly lower likelihood of subsequent conviction than among youth not matched to services and achieving SPEP targets. Conclusions: Matching services to individualized assessed criminogenic needs and providing optimal intervention dosage is critical to success both within and post-residential placement for juvenile offenders.